The Burden of Dreams monologue is absolutely spot-on for describing the Dark Souls experience:

Werner Herzog: [On the jungle] Kinski always says it's full of erotic elements. I don't see it so much erotic. I see it more full of obscenity. It's just - Nature here is vile and base. I wouldn't see anything erotical here. I would see fornication and asphyxiation and choking and fighting for survival and... growing and... just rotting away. Of course, there's a lot of misery. But it is the same misery that is all around us. The trees here are in misery, and the birds are in misery. I don't think they - they sing. They just screech in pain. It's an unfinished country. It's still prehistorical. The only thing that is lacking is - is the dinosaurs here. It's like a curse weighing on an entire landscape. And whoever... goes too deep into this has his share of this curse. So we are cursed with what we are doing here. It's a land that God, if he exists has - has created in anger. It's the only land where - where creation is unfinished yet. Taking a close look at - at what's around us there - there is some sort of a harmony. It is the harmony of... overwhelming and collective murder. And we in comparison to the articulate vileness and baseness and obscenity of all this jungle - Uh, we in comparison to that enormous articulation - we only sound and look like badly pronounced and half-finished sentences out of a stupid suburban... novel... a cheap novel. We have to become humble in front of this overwhelming misery and overwhelming fornication... overwhelming growth and overwhelming lack of order. Even the - the stars up here in the - in the sky look like a mess. There is no harmony in the universe. We have to get acquainted to this idea that there is no real harmony as we have conceived it. But when I say this, I say this all full of admiration for the jungle. It is not that I hate it, I love it. I love it very much. But I love it against my better judgment.posted by naju at 10:47 AM on March 11, 2014 [11 favorites]

It's chaos, hostility, and murder all the way down.posted by localroger at 11:01 AM on March 11, 2014

DID SOMEBODY SAY DARK SOULS???

Thanks for making a post Fizz! I'm gonna duck the hell out of it until I've died a few hundred times, but I can't wait to check in with alla y'all undeads later!posted by prize bull octorok at 11:02 AM on March 11, 2014 [2 favorites]

Yeah I have a strictly no-spoilers-for-anything policy as I play through this game (which I can't actually start on until the end of the month uggggh), so I'm outta here.posted by naju at 11:07 AM on March 11, 2014

No. Dark Souls does not come out on PC until April 25th. Any allegation that someone can play it today are lies designed to hurt me.posted by Justinian at 11:59 AM on March 11, 2014 [3 favorites]

That stupid game is sitting in my car right now, as I stew here at work trying to force my mind to do something productive. I'm kicking myself for not having taken a vacation day today, while wanting to kick myself for wanting to take a vacation game to play a video game as I'm on a collision course with my 40's soon.

Dark souls and "Tetris, the Next Generation" are the only games I've played for years. Despite my anticipation for DS2 I've been feeling sorry for Dark Souls, because it will get a lot less game play, and the PvP elements will strongly slim down. My wife has soundly mocked me for feeling sorry for a game.

I beat the first dark souls without any spoilers, and I plan to do the same for this one.

"Mentally itchy" is the only phrase I can think of to describe how I feel right now.

I've not seen much (any?) of Herzog's work, but still found this video hilarious. Well done!

I came way late to the Dark Souls party. I never intended to play it, as I'm the type of gamer who will play on "normal" or even "easy" setting and just want to experience the story - so Dark Souls seems the exact opposite of a game I would enjoy. But I'd heard enough about it to be intrigued, and ended up watching a lot of youtube videos and twitch.tv playthroughs of it. I loved the sense of community around it, and the elation players would exhibit as I watched them get better at the game was infectious. I finally picked it up dirt cheap for the PS3 a few weeks ago, and it has become one of my favorite games. Although I know I would have thrown it away in frustration after an hour, had I gone in blind.

I have DS2 preordered, although it's not scheduled for delivery until tomorrow (oh, the humanity!) I have not yet defeated Dark Souls, I'm through Anor Londo and just beat the Four Kings. Part of me wants to hold off on DS2 until I beat DS; but I've watched and read enough that there are no real surprises left for me in the first game. I think I will jump straight into DS2 while it's new and fresh and I know nothing about it; I want to experience it from the beginning this time, along with everyone else.posted by Roommate at 12:23 PM on March 11, 2014

I have Dark Souls and only played it for ten minutes. Waiting for a weekend without the girlfriend to give it the time I hear it deserves.
Should I keep to the plan or get Dark Souls 2?posted by Riton at 12:37 PM on March 11, 2014

The developers claim that since they are doing an actual PC version this time (as opposed to the joke we got last time) mouse and keyboard will be a viable control scheme. I'm probably still going to use my controller, though. Something about playing DSII with a mouse just feels wrong.posted by Justinian at 1:14 PM on March 11, 2014

wanting to kick myself for wanting to take a vacation game to play a video game as I'm on a collision course with my 40's soon.

What does that have to do with it? I dream of the time it was even an option for me to consider taking a day for something like that.posted by Dr. Twist at 1:37 PM on March 11, 2014

One of my favorite things is to make up fake Werner Herzog narrations to ordinary activities, so this makes me happy.posted by polywomp at 6:30 PM on March 11, 2014

Why give someone who doesn't play games possibly the most difficult new game around?posted by GallonOfAlan at 2:10 AM on March 12, 2014

GallonofAlan: to make the game playing worthwhile. It depends on what one wants from games; a test of skill, or an interactive movie. You don't give an interactive movie fan a hard game.

I watch my son go through halo on the second hardest mode not bothering to dodge or evade with the infinite health refills and that seems pointless to me. Getting killed by low level scrubs tells me that I really need to improve on the mechanics more. Sigh, I went past the sleeping white knight in the giants forest and I'll come back for him a bit later. I love the way that he moves however.

I'm also unsure what I think of the art style, the enemies seem a bit more "cartoony" and everything seems less bleak. It almost makes me think of Zelda rather than Dark Souls. Granted I haven't played any of those since the adventures of Link.

I'm annoyed that I was online for at most thirty minutes and then couldn't join for the rest of the night, way to plan the launch. Annoying, but sadly not surprising. I wasn't invaded once, where's the adrenalin?!posted by nobeagle at 5:33 AM on March 12, 2014

The server was down the first day. Finally came back up last night. Seeing all the orange messages and bloodstains covering every inch of ground...it was fucking beautiful.

Haven't had any invaders or seen any summon signs yet, but I got plenty of adrenalin off that first boss fight I tell you what.posted by prize bull octorok at 9:53 AM on March 13, 2014 [1 favorite]

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